Ohioans top the field as Bauer, Camp claim Cleveland Marathon titles

Gus Chan / The Plain DealerAshland's Brandon Bauer was all alone as he crossed the finish line as the men's champion of the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon Sunday. Bauer won in a time of 2 hours, 27 minutes and 10 seconds.• For complete Cleveland Marathon results in all eventsCLEVELAND, Ohio -- The youngest were the fleetest of foot at Sunday's 33rd Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.

At least, that was the case when it came to the men's and women's divisions of the 26-mile, 385-yard jaunt over the city's streets. The event, held in ideal weather, drew a record 15,000-plus road runners. In the two divisions, Ohioans Brandon Bauer from Ashland and Nicole Camp from Sterling will always remember their first time covering the distance.

Gus Chan / The Plain DealerNicole Camp crosses the finish line first in the women's marathon in 2:55.38. “I was going to make Columbus [in the fall] my first marathon, but someone said I should get one in before that,” she said after the victory.Bauer, 23, proved much the best in putting more than three minutes between himself and runner-up Sergei Kostylen of Russia. In a much-closer women's race, the 24-year-old Camp bided her time before collaring the leaders down the stretch to win by just over a minute.

"I was with the half-marathon leader all the way," said Bauer, who just got his master's degree in business administration from Ashland. "It would have been nice to have somebody at 18 or 20 miles. Once I hit 20 miles, I knew I could do the final 10K."

Hoping to eventually get at least a 2:19 to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, Bauer settled for a clocking of 2:27:10. He did that after battling a bug that put him in bed for three days earlier in the week.

After Kostylen, 40, clocked a 2:30:12, Shaun Evans, 32, from Galway, N.Y., came in third at 2:32:41.

It was a much different women's affair. A pack of runners that included Beth Woodard, 34, of Orrville and Ashley Anderson, 25, from Denver had the lead for more than half the race. Camp, a University of Toledo graduate now working at Lincoln Electric in Euclid, stayed on her pace and began picking off the leaders.

She passed Woodard at Mile 16 and took over the stop spot after passing Anderson at Mile 21.

"I was going to make Columbus [in the fall] my first marathon, but someone said I should get one in before that," said Camp, who clocked in at 2:55:38. "There were people every 50 yards, so I was never alone. I thought it would hurt more the last six miles, but it only hurt the last two."

Woodard, who said she has run 20 marathons and was last here in the mid 1990s, said she was all for the younger runner prevailing.

"When she passed me, I said 'Go get them,'" said Woodard, who got second place at 2:56:39. "It was a little breathtaking out there with all the wind."

Anderson, who ran at Central Michigan, took third in 2:57:10.

Half marathon: Traveling half the distance, Ian Adams from Georgia's Berry College and Mandy Yates from Medina won their respective events.

Gus Chan / The Plain DealerIan Adams was the most successful member of a 22-runner delegation from Berry College in Georgia, as he won the men's half marathon. “I was trying to go a 5:30 pace for 10 miles and I pretty much hit that,” he said.Adams, 19, was part of a 22-member contingent from the NCAA Division III school in Mount Berry, Ga., that voted to make the Cleveland races their spring destination after track season ended. The sophomore had the streets pretty much to himself after the first 2 1/2 miles and came in at 112:56 to claim the men's race.

"I was trying to go a 5:30 pace for 10 miles and I pretty much hit that," said Adams, whose freshman teammate, Michael Sexton, was third in 1:16:12. "I was solo and it was comfortable."

For the second straight year, Parma's Aaron Apathy, 24, had to settle for second with a 1:14:29 clocking.

"It would have been nice to win," said Apathy, a former Padua High and Baldwin-Wallace runner now working as an accountant at Corrigan Krause in Westlake. "I ran Boston [last month] in 2:38. Coming off Boston, the legs weren't there yet."

Yates, 32, credited a three-month workout regiment with her husband, Brian, that helped her knock off five minutes for a personal best of 1:20:30.

Gus Chan / The Plain DealerMandy Yates, of Medina, crosses the finish line first in the women's half marathon in a time of 1:20.30. "We worked quite a bit on strength and it allows you to go harder on the last miles," said Yates, a native of Pickerington and an Ohio Northern graduate. "I wanted to get a personal record. When I can get into my own pace I can really settle in."

Kathryn Long, who just graduated from Louisville, was the runner-up in 1:21:40 and Berry senior Courtney Cooper was third in 1:23:32.

10K: Five Kenyan men, all racing here for the for the first time, controlled the 6.2-mile race, with Philip Lagat going the distance in 29:05 to hold off Festus Langat by three seconds. Countryman Aron Rono was third in 29:12.

Aaron Rowe, 29, of Painesville was top Ohioan and sixth in 30:19.

On the women's side, Ethiopia's Firehiwot Dado paced a trio of newcomers with a time of 33:08 to win easily over Yuliya Arhipova of Kirgizstan at 33:50. Benita Willis from Melbourne, Australia, was third in 34:19.

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